Brave Debloating Guide

brave_debloat.md

Brave Browser Debloating Guide

Brave is an excellent, privacy-focused browser, but its default configuration comes packed with extra features that many users consider bloat. This guide will walk you through how to get rid of the bloat, hide the ads, and disable background services for a clean, minimal browsing experience.

Part 1: Clearing the Visual Bloat

The default start page and toolbars are crowded with Brave "cards," news feeds, and native crypto shortcuts. Fortunately, the surface-level clutter is easy to hide directly from the UI.

• Clean the Start Page: Open a new tab, click the Customize button in the bottom right corner, and toggle off Brave News, Cards, and any unwanted background images or stats.
• Clean the Toolbar: Right-click on the Brave Rewards, Brave Wallet, Brave VPN, and Leo AI icons located next to the URL bar, and select Hide.

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Part 2: Deep Debloating via Policy Management

Hiding icons from the toolbar doesn't actually stop those features from running in the background. To completely disable integrations like the Wallet, VPN, and Leo AI, we need to apply system-level policies.

Note: Applying these policies will permanently disable these features and prevent them from consuming system resources. You will not be able to toggle them back on from the standard settings menu unless you remove the policy files.

What we are disabling:

Feature	Policy Key	Description
Brave Rewards	BraveRewardsDisabled	Disables the native ad/crypto reward system.
Brave Wallet	BraveWalletDisabled	Disables the built-in cryptocurrency wallet.
Brave VPN	BraveVPNDisabled	Disables the premium VPN service prompts.
Leo AI Chat	BraveAIChatEnabled	Completely disables the built-in Leo AI assistant.
Brave News	BraveNewsDisabled	Turns off the native news feed aggregator.
Brave Talk	BraveTalkDisabled	Disables the native video conferencing tool.
Sync	SyncDisabled	Disables Brave's bookmark and history syncing.
Tor	TorDisabled	Removes the "Private Window with Tor" feature (often required for enterprise/strict security environments).

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Linux Instructions

To apply these policies on Linux, we need to create a managed policy JSON file.

Open your terminal and create the necessary directory structure:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/brave/policies/managed/

Next, open a new JSON file in your preferred text editor (like nano):

sudo nano /etc/brave/policies/managed/bloat.json

Paste the following JSON array into the file, then save and exit:

{
    "BraveRewardsDisabled": true,
    "BraveWalletDisabled": true,
    "BraveVPNDisabled": true,
    "BraveAIChatEnabled": false,
    "BraveNewsDisabled": true,
    "BraveTalkDisabled": true,
    "SyncDisabled": true,
    "TorDisabled": true,
    "DnsOverHttpsMode": "automatic"
}

Brave will apply these policies instantly. Simply open a new window to enjoy your minimal browser.

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Windows Instructions

To apply these policies on Windows, we will inject them directly into the Windows Registry.

Open PowerShell as an Administrator and execute the following commands block:

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave" -Force | Out-Null
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave" -Name "BraveRewardsDisabled" -Type DWord -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave" -Name "BraveNewsDisabled" -Type DWord -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave" -Name "BraveTalkDisabled" -Type DWord -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave" -Name "SyncDisabled" -Type DWord -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave" -Name "BraveWalletDisabled" -Type DWord -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave" -Name "BraveVPNDisabled" -Type DWord -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave" -Name "BraveAIChatEnabled" -Type DWord -Value 0
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave" -Name "TorDisabled" -Type DWord -Value 1

Once the script finishes running, completely restart the Brave browser for the policies to take effect.

For Mac OS, you can run these commands on terminal:

defaults write com.brave.Browser BraveRewardsDisabled -bool true
defaults write com.brave.Browser BraveWalletDisabled -bool true
defaults write com.brave.Browser BraveVPNDisabled -bool true
defaults write com.brave.Browser BraveAIChatEnabled -bool false
defaults write com.brave.Browser BraveNewsDisabled -bool true
defaults write com.brave.Browser BraveTalkDisabled -bool true
defaults write com.brave.Browser SyncDisabled -bool true
defaults write com.brave.Browser TorDisabled -bool true
defaults write com.brave.Browser DnsOverHttpsMode -string "automatic"

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of the Brave .html file icon?
The arrogant developers had it make a system change so my .html files have that ugly mutant lion icon.
I changed the default app for .html files, deleted brave, and deleted everything in the library associated with Brave. The blasted icon is still there. I detest it. And I hate Brave after barely using it.
Any software that would do something so scummy should NOT be trusted.
Any ideas how to get rid of that?